"Like every year this is an extremely tough, tough Tour de France to win. Only three summit finishes but a few very difficult challenging mountain stages. It definitely could make the race a lot more tactical in the mountains and not necessarily just about the strongest on the climb on the day."

"It is certainly nice to see that Tour de France is returning to Germany, I think it's been 30 years now since the Tour was there. I think especially given the likes of a lot of the German riders in the peloton at the moment, we've got some really talented guys, guys like (Marcel) Kittel, (John) Degenkolb, Tony Martin. I'm sure for them it's going to be a great honour for them to be at the Tour de France with it starting in Germany again."

"Yes, the stages from the beginning to the end where the Tour can play itself out, for the first time in 25 years, the five main mountain ranges. These last few years, we sometimes had three mountain stages in the same mountain range. Here, there will be a stage in the Vosges, two in the Jura, two in the Pyrenees, one in the Massif Central, two in the Alps, and a time trial at the beginning and another one nearly at the end. So it is made in a way it can play itself out everywhere and give an uncertain side to the race. That's what we are looking for."

"Of course there are short stages with important differences of levels but there is no succession of difficulties and no third week as hard as the one last year for example." .

It is an interesting itinerary

14. 02:27 Romain Bardet being interviewed

15. 02:32 Pan journalists

16. 02:37 SOUNDBITE (French) Thomas Voeckler, French rider:

"I've been through everything on the Tour so what happens to me for the past few years is really like a bonus. I ride the Tour because I like it and I really enjoy the Tour De France. After, well I'll answer you after the Tour but if we win a stage with the team, or if I manage to, why not, win a fifth stage on the Tour, I'm not going to deprive myself. We saw earlier the 2016 retrospective: the various stage winners are not second rate riders, these last few years have been more and more difficult and let's face it. I'll be 38 next year. I don't have the legs I had when I was 30. The mind might still be the same but the body ages."

Storyline

Chris Froome and other riders reacted after the 2017 Tour de France route was unveiled on Tuesday (18th October).

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

All five mountain ranges of continental France will feature in next year's Tour de France, setting up a gruelling, three-week racing challenge that seems tailor-made for the climbing strengths of defending champion Chris Froome and his Colombian rival, Nairo Quintana.

In their quest to keep the 113-year-old race young, organisers have again unearthed fresh racing challenges from the geography of France, with new climbs and, on stage 18, an unprecedented mountain-top finish on the punishing Col d'Izoard high in the Alps - a rocky, hostile and lunar terrain that could be the final big battleground for the winner's check of 500,000 euros ($550,000).

Before that, on stage 12 in the Pyrenees, the Tour climbs to the Peyragudes ski station where parts of the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies" were filmed in 1997.

From its July 1 start in Duesseldorf, Germany, to the July 23 finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, the 3,516-kilometre (2,185-mile) route will wind over climbs in the Vosges, Jura, Massif Central, Pyrenees and Alps. Not since the Tour of 1992 have organisers made riders take on all five mountain ranges.